Albania, along with the African states of Sierra Leone and Laon, topped the global list of the most corrupt countries in terms of business from the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey which takes place over a 6 year interval.
According to World Bank data referring to surveys of the last three years from 2016 to 2019 in different countries ,Albania tops the global list of surveyed countries with 36.1 percent of businesses claiming to have corruption practices.
Albania comes third after Sierra Leone and Laos where 46.1 and 40.3 percent of businesses claim to have made corrupt payments.
In Europe, Cypriot and Turkish businesses is has been reported low levels of corruption with 0.2 and 1.4%, respectively.
The percentage of businesses in Albania that claiming to have paid corruption fees has increased significantly since 2013, when the last survey was conducted.
Enterprise Survey is a company survey covering a wide range of business issues such as access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competitiveness, and performance measurement units.
However, the World Bank office in Albania explained that changes in perceptions are often difficult to understand and interpret as they are often driven by different aspects beyond direct experiences, aspects that the Enterprise Survey does not measure.
Furthermore, the survey notes that firms have become more direct in expressing complaints about all aspects of their business operations.
This is a positive development as filing grievances when the last survey was conducted, in which businesses applying corruption practices made up about 20 percent of respondents it helps to identify issues that need to be addressed.
The list of major obstacles that businesses face in their business has changed significantly since 2013 but taxes and a high degree of informality have remained at the top of the list for years.
